


Paradise Lost

by xkatjafx



Category: Lost
Genre: Angst, Dark, Disturbing, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-13
Updated: 2009-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 14:03:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xkatjafx/pseuds/xkatjafx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe it all started with Claire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradise Lost

**Author's Note:**

> *Not* for the squeamish. *Really*. Don't come running to me later and complain, because I told you so. If you're shocked about what's happening in the first four paragraphs, you won't like the rest any better. It's only getting worse, believe me. Better stop then and there if you think it's not your cup of tea.
> 
> **Pairings:** This is not really about relationships, though if you really must know, there's Sawyer/Sayid, some Sawyer/Kate, a hint of Shannon/Boone and some minor Charlie/Claire and Kate/Jack UST.  
> **Disclaimer:** Not mine. Lost belongs to ABC, JJ Abrams, Touchstone and Bad Robot.  
> **Thanks go to:** Mareen for beta-duties and not minding being harassed over ICQ (without her this story would have been at least a page shorter), i_am_schizo for general encouragement, and last but definitely not least Temve who has no clue about Lost, but was so kind to fix my grammar and spelling mistakes.  
> **Feedback:** Would be nice. Constructive criticism is welcome, too!

**Paradise Lost  
by xkatjafx**

 

Later they figured it had all started with Claire. At least she was the first to show real symptoms with her irrational fear of being attacked at night. But since Claire got abducted soon after and was never seen again, nobody could be sure.

Maybe Hurley was the first. Nobody was able to say how long it had already been going on by the time the group found out. The only thing they knew was that 28 days after the crash, Walt had come running to Michael, telling him he'd caught Hurley eating strange things - like earth, shells and glass fragments.

At first, Hurley denied all accusations, but after being caught again - this time by Boone - he admitted to those uncontrollable urges. He tried to stop, but fact was Hurley didn't. Every now and then he would unconsciously put something into his mouth.

After a few days of watching and keeping Hurley from eating inedible things at least ten times an hour, Locke decided to tie Hurley's hands behind his back. Of course, Hurley didn't like that idea at all. But the minute Jack also insisted on it, the choice wasn't his anymore.

Not that it helped. After finding Hurley face down in the dirt the next day, munching on some kind of wood, Sayid wondered whether they should also gag him. Hearing that Hurley started raving about wanting to leave the camp and living on his own, and why the fuck did they all care, it was *his* life after all...

In the end they tied Hurley to a tree next to the cave for his own good.

People kept telling themselves it was just the fat guy going crazy and Jack would certainly find a way to "heal" him. Trying to put the incident behind them, they concentrated on the problem of surviving on an island.

For a while.

* * *

It was a nice sunny day when Kate found Michael half-naked with his head bashed in, next to Sun and a big rock. The Korean woman lying in the high grass of the clearing was wearing nothing but a little smile on her face. She was looking rather peaceful if it weren't for that second very disturbing "smile" that had been cut around her throat.

They found the knife a day later. Next to Jin who had decided to perform some sort of neat hara-kiri on himself.

People were talking for days after that. Rumors said that Sun had seduced Michael and Jin had unfortunately stumbled onto the scene. Others were sure Michael had attempted to rape Sun - and Sun had killed herself out of shame, with Jin following soon after.

They would never know.

All three were burned at the beach the next night and Locke officially became Walt's new step-dad.

Things progressed more quickly after that.

A girl got first degree burns because she had taken up marathon sun-bathing. They tied her next to Hurley after two useless days of trying to talk her out of it. Now Hurley at least had somebody to talk to. Or so they told themselves.

Not very long after that, Steve jumped from a cliff - right in front of Scott's eyes.

People started talking after that, saying the island was cursed. Others kept arguing that it was just the situation and how some people were more susceptible to stress than others. A few just kept their mouths shut, trying to ignore it all away.

Rose became catatonic again and stopped eating. Jack tried force feeding her, but he lacked the proper equipment - like a naso-gastric tube and the right nourishment. The only option left was opening her mouth by applying force to the right pressure points between upper and lower jaw, then coaxing her to swallow. Which most of the time didn't work, so Rose became weaker and weaker.

* * *

Next up was Jack. He worked himself into a frenzy, trying to help all his patients, achieving nothing. It started with Kate noticing him staring into the jungle. Later they found out he was seeing his dead father. Then came the phases when he actually talked to him, oblivious to anything around him. The more time went by, the shorter the periods became during which Jack was able to shake off his own little private world.

Still, unlike the others, he was obviously no danger to himself. He ate, slept, and never went far away from the caves. He even took care of his patients sometimes - in those few "awake" moments. Therefore the others mostly let him be. It was only Kate who tried to talk to him from time to time.

Jack didn't even recognize her.

The group held a big meeting after Jack's state of mind became too obvious to hide anymore. The discussion ranged from curses to diseases, to the Others attacking them, government conspiracy theories and back to strange magnetic fields causing mental illnesses. Emotions were running high. People were screaming and fighting. But since nobody knew a solution, because nobody knew the cause of the problem in the first place, things were going nowhere. Except to "Hell in a hand basket," as Sawyer put it.

The only result of the meeting was the formation of a smaller group of seven people led by Scott, who left the camp afterwards. The rest decided to stay near the food and water supply. It wasn't like most of them wanted to stay, but besides Locke (who opted for staying), nobody thought they were able to survive in the jungle on their own. In addition, their only chance of rescue was at the beach and most of them weren't willing to give that one up yet.

* * *

After Claire's abduction, Charlie hadn't been the same. First he threw himself whole-heartedly into one rescue mission after the other - but the group never found Claire or any sign of Ethan or the Others. After the first week less and less people were willing to wander aimlessly through the jungle. In the end Locke decided it was futile to spend their resources and man power on getting her back. She and the baby were probably dead anyway.

All that was left of Claire were the nightmares that kept Charlie awake at night. He pretty much stopped talking after a while. But since he was up to doing his daily chores for the community and had stated often enough he wanted to be left alone, the group gave him his privacy and thought no further. Grieving was a complicated process after all.

Charlie overdosed on some strange mix of pharmaceuticals two days after the meeting. They found him dead next to Jack's stash in the morning, eyes rolled up, limbs strangely twisted.

Kate took it hard. After Charlie's funeral, she became restless, offering to bring water from caves to beach, get some wood, search for edible plants. Whatever would get her out of the camp. With Jack not really sane enough to keep her centered, it was bound to happen. One morning she was just gone and every attempt to find her failed miserably.

* * *

The night started to become a kind of mental war zone, because it was almost impossible to sleep. Hurley and the girl were crying and rambling endlessly until Locke decided to gag them - after the second night of sleep deprivation.

Still, people were restless at night. It didn't matter if it was the beach or the cave. People were tossing and turning from one side to the other. Many had nightmares so terrible they woke up screaming in the middle of the night.

Somewhere along the way people started having sex. Maybe as a distraction, maybe because fear of death always led to people fucking like bunnies. Maybe it was pure boredom. Maybe it was something else entirely.

It started very quiet, with people sleeping at the edges of the camp, trying to hide it. But soon they stayed and shared their blankets openly, moaning loudly while going at it, not caring if anyone heard or saw.

Sawyer was very sure that one of those couples consisted of Shannon and Boone. Not that he cared. After all, he got the one he wanted right next to him.

Sawyer remembered himself and Kate finally having sex the night before she vanished - and while he fucked her, he suddenly realized that this was not what he wanted. Considering the situation they were all in, it was probably time to stop pretending. To stop lying to himself. Stop playing mind games.

He brought her to orgasm and then left without a word, in search of Sayid who had left the camp earlier - once he caught Sawyer with Kate in his arms, smirking at him.

Sawyer found Sayid that night. After a lot of yelling, one black eye and some wrestling on the sand, things progressed into ripped shirts, biting, kissing and some frottage in the surge.

They shared their blankets ever since, mostly ignoring the people and the sounds around them.

* * *

The only times that silence fell over the camp at night were those seconds after the loud noises coming out of the jungle.

Obviously the monster was back.

Sayid found Boone's bloody remains hanging in a tree a few days later.

Shannon never was the same after that. Keeping even more to herself, sitting on the beach, whispering into her hands, swaying lightly back and forth.

Some other girl noticed the cuts on her arms and legs. The people on the beach decided to keep her tied up at the times that nobody had time to look out for her. Unfortunately the day came when someone looked the other way at the wrong time and Shannon managed to run away.

By the time Locke found her and the knife again, the cuts to her face were so horrible and the blood loss so tremendous that Jack, in one of his rare moments of clarity, decided it was best to "let her go".

Two days later the other girl cut out her tongue.

After that the group decided to limit the access to the knives. But since they were needed for a lot of daily chores, there was only so much they could do.

* * *

The nightly fire burials became shorter and shorter. People stopped attending. Maybe there was only so much grieving you could do - until it started to get dull.

A lone member of Scott's group re-appeared, dragging herself into the beach camp half-naked, dirty and dehydrated. Unfortunately they never found out what had happened to the other six, because nobody could make her communicate in any way. Locke and Sayid had both noticed the layer of dried-up blood under all the dirt and grime, but had quietly decided not to mention it. No need to make the unspoken panic even bigger than it already was.

Four days later an old man swam away from the island. By the time someone noticed it was already too risky to get him back.

Some woman scratched her eyes out with a stick.

Then the guy who had been told to disembowel the fish cut off one of his hands, claiming it was evil.

One of the younger guys got bitten by a poisonous snake and died. Sawyer put that one down to bad luck.

Another woman hung herself next to the caves.

People started freaking more openly. Some by keeping to themselves, trying to avoid any human contact, because they thought *it* was contagious. Others decided to move in groups, making sure nobody was alone for a long time, hoping for someone to save them eventually from whatever was out to get them.

* * *

Sayid started hearing voices. Again. One could often find him at the beach staring into space. But generally he was still able to function properly. One night at the beach camp Sawyer asked him why, and the Iraqi answered that he didn't know. He couldn't even make out what the voices were telling him.

With so many people dead, procuring enough water, food and wood started to get complicated. One day Locke dragged another big bundle behind him into the camp. Anticipating the first full meal in days, everyone tried to find some more wood or got the dishes ready. It took them a while to notice that thing that was strung up and in the process of being disemboweled wasn't a young boar. It was Walt. Head and limbs severed.

The men tried to overpower him, but Locke killed four and injured two others - until Sayid managed to ram a knife between his ribs. Locke died later that day, after hours of ranting and screaming about the island wanting sacrifices.

Four more people left the camp the next day.

Food and water became scarce because people started refusing to go into the jungle. In the end Sawyer and Sayid decided to move the rest of the group to the caves, just to at least be close to the water supply.

* * *

That had been a week ago. Since then Rose had fallen victim to malnutrition, Hurley had swallowed his tongue and died, and five more people had simply vanished. Nobody wanted to search for them because everyone was sure they were dead anyway.

Sayid couldn't bring himself to care either. They were doomed one way or the other. The night after they had moved to the caves he and Sawyer had decided to make the best of the time they had left.

He turned to his lover, letting his hands glide over the cool wet skin. After putting some sunscreen on his erect cock, he lifted up Sawyer's legs and buried himself with one hard thrust. Moaning loudly into his lover's mouth, he let orgasm overtake him.

Later he kissed Sawyer softly, not really seeing the dead milky eyes staring back at him.

Four days ago he had finally understood what the voices were trying to tell him.

Now they were silent.

 

end


End file.
